Can't Kill What's Not Real
by lovestruck-by-fiction
Summary: "Oh, that looks painful. How bad is it? On a scale of agonising to excruciating?" Castiel screwed his eyes shut, gripping his stomach. His breathing was shallow as he gritted his teeth and cried out in pain. His stomach burned, and his head thumped. "I can make things so much worse Castiel. You could have left us alone! But now we're myths... and you can't kill a myth."
1. This One's a Myth

"Ready?" Dean whispered to Sam as they stood either side of the wooden door, to which Sam nodded. Dean thumped on the door twice with his foot, breaking it down. When they entered, there stood a young girl of around twenty five. She was short, with long, curly red hair, and she wore a flowing black dress which stopped at her knees. The sleeves of the dress were tight round the girls arms, but this could have been because her fists were clenched. She was surrounded by men and women alike, all of whom looked weak, and many were in tears. Dean brought up his gun as quickly as possible.

"Hey!"

The woman swung around, looking at the brothers. Her eyes were an icy blue, and devoid of emotion. Dean shot three times; twice in the heart and once in the head. But after all shots were fired, the stranger remained standing, unharmed. The bullets had hit her. He was sure of it. But there were no bullet holes, the bullets hadn't gone through her and smashed something else. They just disappeared.

"You know, if you want these people alive, I suggest you don't try to kill me. 'Try' being the operative word, because you can't kill me but it's nice to show some respect.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Ania. Must you be so rude?"

"Y'know, I don't have much respect for demons anymore so"-

"For what? I don't…"

"Look, just tell us what you're doing." Sam said, taking a step further into the room.

"I'm not doing any"- Ania stopped mid-sentence and looked behind Sam and Dean, her face stone cold.

"Hello Ania." A deep, hoarse voice said from behind the brothers.

"What the hell is he doing here?" the girl exclaimed at Castiel, confused and angry.

"We could ask you the same thing." Dean interrupted.

"What are you doing to these people Ania?"

"Nothing. Just causing trouble." The twenty-something replied.

"Boy you sure know how to pick 'em Cas." Dean mumbled, before Ania retorted:

"I've got to agree with him there. Your genius boyfriend here thought he could actually kill me."

"I don't understand what she means Dean. I didn't think we"-

"We're not, Cas! How do we kill this bitch?"

"Yeah _Cas_. How do we kill me? Oh yeah. You can't."

"Why do you keep saying that?"

"I'm not real. I don't belong in this universe, so you can't kill me." Ania sang to the three men, nudging the people that lay on the ground with her feet. One mumbled slightly, but it was difficult to tell what he was saying because a lot of the noise was just moans of pain. She kicked him gently in the stomach with the side of her foot and administered a sharp "Shut up." And moved on.

"Yeah, we'll see." Dean snapped, putting his gun away, after realising it was no use.

"What do you mean not from this universe?" Sam inquired, to which the girl drew a confused look.

"You know…. **Ania**?"

"You know saying your name doesn't explain much." Dean inputted again. Ania darted him a look of intolerance.

"You should catch up on your studies Sam. I've got all eternity for you to figure it out. Or ask your angel buddy, I'm sure he'd be happy to help destroy me."

"And when we do"- Dean began -"we'll send you right back home to daddy before you know what hit you."

"You should go back to where you came from as now, and stop harming these innocent people." Castiel said in his monotone voice.

All of a sudden, Ania's eyes grew dark and the snarky smirk faded from her face. She stared the trio down. It took around five seconds, as Ania waited for one of them to take back what had just been said. Sam looked to Dean first, and Dean looked back shortly after that. Ania looked over to the men who had conceded, then back to Castiel, took a deep breath and leaned in so that she was face to face with him.

"Good luck." Ania sneered, then smiled. "With everything." The brothers exchanged confused looks, and before they knew it, Ania was gone. Leaving them curious and slightly nervous as to what she meant by 'everything'. The man that Ania kicked in the stomach groaned again, and managed to move a sufficient amount for the level of pain he appeared to be in two minutes ago. Then, a couple of others began lifting their heads and standing themselves up. Sam walked over to a boy around Ania's age and helped him up.

"Do you remember how you got here?"

"Uh, yeah dude. I've not got short term memory loss."

Dean sniggered from the side, and Sam ignored both the unnecessary comment and his brother laughing at him and continued on.

"So, what exactly did Ania do?"

"Well, she invited us in, it's her house. Where is she anyway?…. wait, how did I get better? I was going to die. I was sure I was going to die. And my family… oh, my family! What if they think I'm dead?"

Suddenly, the rest of the people in the room began reacting as the boy did. Panicking, worrying. Some cried, some looked distressed. Two girls even started fighting, so Dean pulled one off of the other.

"Hey! Knock it off! Now no one is going to die, no one is going to worry about their families."

"Now everyone, just go home. You'll be fine." Sam continued

Then, a scream came from the other side of the room. A woman was kneeling down, and for a second, Sam thought she had collapsed. But as the brothers got through the crowd of people, they saw that the woman kneeling down beside someone else.

Cas.

He looked dazed and a little taken by surprise at what had just happened. When Dean knelt down beside him, he looked up, confused.

"Cas? Are you okay?"

"Yes I'm… fine. Just a little dizzy is all."

Dean helped him to his feet, and once he was sure Castiel could stand on his own, Sam took Dean to the side, out of ear shot of the dizzy, confused man.

"Dean… what do you think happened?"

"He got dizzy, that's what happened. You heard him say it!"

"Yeah but maybe Ania"-

"Screw Ania. We find her, we kill her. Everything's going to be fine."

As the three of them left the house, Castiel felt a low, burning pain in his stomach.


	2. Ania

**Sorry it took so long. I've been very busy, but here you go!**

* * *

"So turns out, "Ania" was part of a trio in Greek Mythology."-

"There's more than one of **her? **This should be fun."

Sam and Dean arrived back in their motel room after a pit stop at the local authorities, who informed them that they didn't know anyone by the name of Ania. And the hospital, who informed them that several people had come in with symptoms that didn't add up to any particular disease, and the patients wouldn't respond to any treatment given. They all died within twenty four hours of arriving. Castiel had disappeared during the car journey home and neither Sam nor Dean had heard from him.

"The Algea is the name given to the three spirits together. Apparently, they were spirits of pain, grief, and if we can think back on our conversation with Ania"-

"Trouble."

"Bingo. The other two, Lupe and Achus, are the spirits of grief and pain. And, check this out." Sam handed his laptop across the table to his brother "Look at the info on their family."

'_Parents: Eris (goddess of strife and discord). No father.'_

Dean handed the laptop back to his brother. He would probably regret reminding the Greek spirit of trouble that she had no father a little more if she wasn't such a _bitch. _

xXx

Castiel arrived back at Ania's house, now empty as the people trapped in the living room had fled the premises. Upon arriving, he felt weak and dizzy, and tripped on the stairs leading up to the house. The front door was open, so the angel allowed himself in.

"I half expected you to knock." The spirit said from behind him once he was in the hallway.

"The door was open"-

"Yeah, well my mouth opens when I speak but that's not an invitation for you to kiss it." Castiel followed Ania into the living room, and the spirit looked back over her shoulder when he stopped suddenly and gasped. An extremely sharp pain shot through the unsuspecting angel's chest, and he grasped the door frame to support himself.

"Can I help you with something?" Ania mocked, smiling at the expression on his face.

"What have you done?"

"I trapped a bunch of people in my house so that my brothers could torture them"-

-"That is not what I mean." Castiel snapped, walking towards Ania.

"I know what you mean, _Cas. _That's a cute nickname by the way, do you actually let him call you that?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"I'm not doing anything to you, it's my family you want to worry about."

"The Algea were destroyed a long time ago"

Castiel took another few steps towards Ania, but his knees then gave way and he fell to the ground, the sharp pain returning to his chest. He winced and made an audible grunt of pain, trying to stand up. Ania knelt down in front of him and lifted his chin so that he was looking at her.

"I don't like you, in case you hadn't guessed. It's going to take some convincing to make me think otherwise. Even then you shouldn't be so sure that this is going to stop."

Ania stood back up and Castiel's head fell to the floor, too weak to look up at the spirit of trouble, that despised him enough to put him in this state and enjoy it. He felt ashamed and useless, lying on the floor, breathing shallowly, forcing himself up and away from Ania.

"You can bite down and take the pain until your boyfriend and his sidekick find a way to 'destroy' my brothers and I, which no doubt they will. Eventually. Or you can wait for the Keres to come and finish our job. We're all coming back Castiel, one at a time and there's not a whole lot you can do about it."

"You have opposite numbers. They will s-surely destroy you if we don't."

"The Kharites have nothing on us! They will take centuries to emerge, and when they do, you're likely to be dead anyway."

After a few brief moments that felt pain-free to Castiel, the pain returned again in the form of a burning in his stomach. He tried to avoid Ania seeing him like that, but it was sudden and unexpected, and the angel was looking her straight in the eye when his face crumpled into an expression of extreme discomfort and he let out a low wince of pain.

"Have fun kiddo." Ania said with a mischievous smile, before Castiel gathered up the strength to transport himself back to where Sam and Dean were staying.

xXx

"Dean, I don't know how we're supposed to stop this many mythological creatures from coming back. I mean, most of them are gods and goddesses. Then we're talking dragons, giants, the whole history of Greek mythology here."

Dean got up from the bed and ambled over to where Sam was sitting with his laptop. "Well, aren't you the optimist?"

"I mean, they all have their counterparts. Other spirits that could easily destroy them, but that could mean another war on earth that has nothing to do with us."

"Christ. Well, they're myths! Tell them to go find some other mythological planet to have their little argument on!"

"Believe me, if I knew how, I would."

At that moment, Castiel appeared. He had no visible injuries from what the boys could tell, but he was clearly finding it difficult to move anywhere with great speed. Dean and Sam exchanged looks and went over to help the angel.

"What, you waste your energy on flying Cas?" Dean asked, unbeknownst to his pain caused by the algea.

"It's Ania. Her and her brothers have decided that they are going to torture me. But I don't know why."

"Ever thought it might be cause you piss them off?"

"The algea… they were destroyed shortly after the angels came to power, and we locked them in a mythological universe. But they've… they've come back, and I think they want r-_revenge!_"

At that point, the angel lost all strength due to the pain, and would have collapsed had Sam and Dean not been there.

"Cas? Cas!" Dean tried to shake Castiel out of his state but it was no use. The angel was trembling with pain and gasping for breath.

"Alright. Put him in there, I'm gonna go see what this bitch wants."

"Dean, shouldn't we both go? I mean, you saw what she did with Cas. And you're not exactly easy going when you're angry."

"I'll be fine Sammy. Just stay here and watch Cas. Make sure he's okay, and make sure he doesn't die."

With that, Dean angrily grabbed his jacket and stormed out. Sam waited a few minutes until he heard the wheels screech onto the road, then proceeded to take Castiel to the bedroom to lay him down. The angel shuffled alongside Sam, but was mainly being pulled along, too tired to cry out in pain or move.

"Alright Cas, it's okay. You're gonna be okay, alright? Just call if you need anything."

As Sam went back to his research, and Dean sped towards Ania's house, Castiel lay helpless, drifting in and out of a painful sleep.


	3. Here Comes Trouble

Dean raced in the Impala toward the large house where this all started, with every intention of killing the spirit. Upon arriving though, he soon remembered that not only was Ania a _spirit_, but a mythological spirit. She had also told him that they would never be able to kill her. So he settled on looking for answers on why Ania was doing what she was doing. The hunter screeched to a halt outside the house and stormed in. the door was still hanging off from when the boys kicked it in. After scoping out the house and finding no one there, Dean returned to the car and called his brother. When Sam answered, Dean heard the low groaning of Castiel in the background almost immediately.

"Hey. How's he holding up?"

"Not good. He's been getting some sleep, but when he's awake it's awful. He just"-

Sam was interrupted by a thud from the angel behind him. He swung round from his laptop to see Castiel laying on the floor, fists clenched until his knuckles were white, making an attempt to breathe through the pain without groaning. Needless to say he wasn't doing a very good job. Sam sat his phone on the table and knelt by his helpless friend.

"It's alright Cas. You're gonna be fine. Are you okay?"

The angel's attempt to push himself off the ground wasn't successful either. He moaned in pain once more and his arms gave way from underneath him.

"Hang in there Cas." Sam said supportively as he rested a hand on Castiel's shoulder, before returning to his phone call. "Yeah, he's not great. How's it going over there?"

"She bailed."

"What?"

"Yeah, she's not here. probably out torturing some other poor bastard. Listen I'm gonna wait here til' she gets back. You gonna be okay with Cas?"

Sam looked over to the angel once more, only to see him lying with his eyes closed, breathing shallowly. "Yeah, I should be fine."

xXx

Dean camped outside Ania's house in his car for most of the night. He had drifted off and awoke early the next morning to see Ania arriving home. Dean re-stormed into the house behind Ania, followed her down the hall and as she reached up to open the living room door, he pinned her hand to it with ruby's knife. He secretly hoped that Ania had been lying the entire time about them not being able to kill her, and that when he stabbed her he would cause her as much pain as she caused Castiel. However, she had not been lying. When he stabbed her hand, she did not bleed, or flinch with pain. The only thing the stab emitted from her was a snarky comment.

"… this is my good hand."

Dean pulled the knife from her and spun her round to pin her back against the door. Despite looking a little offended and angry, Ania continued the uncaring façade.

"Are you going to break every door in my house?"

"What have you got against Cas?"

"What haven't I got against him? He's the reason Greek mythology is a **myth**. Him and every other angel I can think of. They were created and we were wiped out of history, into another universe that you people call _myths_." Ania leaned in to whisper into Dean's ear.

"I am stronger than he ever was." Ania hissed "the angels ran us out of the universe, but your friend is pathetic. And he as the nerve to tell me to stop harming people! He's getting what he deserves."

Dean looked down at the girl he was faced with, into her piercing blue eyes and retorted.

"If you don't stop what you're doing, right now, I will do everything I can to make sure I waste you, until you don't even exist as a myth.."

"What I'm doing?" Ania replied "I'm not doing anything."

Dean grabbed the girl by the jacket, slamming her back into the door, his eyes filled with rage.

"Take it back! Now!"

"I'm not doing anything to your pretty-boy angel! I'm just fixing the situation to make it easier on my brothers."

"What?"

"Well since I've shown up, you've been chasing me, chasing all the trouble I've been causing everywhere I go, dragging yourselves _away _from your core problem, and giving me more time to…. Play, with your precious, broken partner. I've got the fun job. My brothers just want to make him squeal a little." Ania sneered with an evil grin.

And in the blink of an eye, she had disappeared into thin air once again. Dean raced back to the motel, where Castiel was. He lay sometimes in bed, sometimes on the floor from when he tried to get up but couldn't. Every so often he would let out a cry of pain, and Sam sat in the kitchen, unable to help at all, so he researched more about Ania and her brothers and how to stop them. He also looked up possible diagnoses for Castiel's symptoms: panic attacks; shortness of breath; weakness of arms and legs; extremely high temperature; extremely sharp pains in the head and stomach, and came up with a whole lot of nothing. Dean came charging angrily into the house not long after Cas had a short screaming fit from the burning pain in his head. He lay on the floor, pale and sweating when Dean came in and strode towards Sam.

"What have you got on how to kill this bitch? Seriously, there's got to be something. Everything can be killed."

"Well, there's the Kharites. They're the opposite numbers for Ania and her brothers, but like I said, that could start another war on earth that isn't our fight."

"You know what? I think it's worth the risk now. I mean, look at him." Dean said as they turned to face Castiel, who looked worse than ever. Sam gave a small nod in agreement.

"Alright then." Dean confirmed. "How do we find them?"

"Well that's a slight problem. The opposite numbers of these spirits tend to literally be the _opposite_. They won't be anywhere nearby."

"Crap."

"Yeah. But, we could always find a way to summon them, but we'd need to take some pretty extreme measures."

"Such as?"…

"It says here we need to… um, crush the bone of the Algea's victim in order to summon them here" the younger Winchester replied before glancing to the quivering angel, then back to his brother.

"Dude, he can barely stand up."

"You got any better ideas?"

Dean contemplated a total of two other ideas in his head, neither of which would be easy-going on Castiel, and agreed on summoning another mythological spirit.

"So who are we looking for?"

"Uh… one of three spirits. The Kharites, they're spirits of graces, beauties and favours. You sort of need to summon them all at once but who knows if they'll all turn up."

"Well, it's worth a shot." He concluded as he knelt by Castiel, who was once again drifting in and out of sleep. "This won't be fun buddy, but we're doing this to get rid of these sons of bitches. Okay?"

The angel merely winced in response, but the brothers took that as a signal to get started, and they got to work.


	4. A Favour

After ten minutes of hauling Castiel to his feet, then watching him crush his own wrist bone, shouting in pain through gritted teeth the entire time, Sam and Dean allowed the angel to sleep as they awaited one of the Kharites arriving. After a short while, a small gust of wind blew and they heard a polite, quiet "hello" from behind them. The brothers spun round simultaneously to another girl Ania's age, with short, straight blonde hair and green eyes. She wore a loose white knee-length skirt and a white vest top with only one strap. She looked like a modern dressed version of the stereotypical Greek spirits, and Sam pondered this thought as the barefooted girl walked towards them.

"May I help you?"

"Wow. It's never usually that easy." Dean scoffed as he looked to his brother.

"I'm Gratiae, the spirit of favours" the girl replied "I don't expect anything in return."

Sam smiled at this remark. It was nice for someone to do something for them that didn't result in either of them losing a soul for once.

"Yeah… we're having a bit of an issue with the algea, umm… some sort of spirits of"-

"Grief, pain and sorrow. Yes, I know."

"Well, you see, our… friend… has a bit of an issue with them and has become their favourite play toy." Dean refrained from using the term 'angel' in case this spirit was still holding a grudge with angels as well. He looked round to Castiel, who lay asleep; pain free for a while. It was a relief to see him at peace. The young spirit followed Dean's gaze, and upon seeing Castiel, gave a small chuckle.

"What?"

"Your friend is an angel."

Sam cleared his throat awkwardly, before deciding what to say.

"Umm, we were kind of hoping that you weren't too peed off about that."

Gratiae looked confusedly back at Sam, before replying. "About what?"

"Well, the angels ran you out of the universe."

"We were destroying this universe. Had they not acted sooner you would not exist."

Gratiae made her way over to Castiel as she spoke and knelt by him. She studied him for a few seconds before looking away, back at Sam and Dean. She had a lot of sympathy for angels, and had helped with the decision making of banishing the Greek myths.

"Which spirit did this?"

Sam and Dean froze. Whilst they were caught up in all the trouble of looking for Ania and helping Cas, they never thought to find out which spirit in particular was causing Castiel's pain. And as if reading their minds, Gratiae sighed.

"You don't know?"

"Well, we've been kinda busy." Dean said, gesturing to Cas.

"I understand. I can find out for you if you wish."

"In exchange for what?" Sam replied.

"In exchange for nothing, that is who I am." The spirit smiled, proud of her willingness to help others out of the goodness of her heart. "I will find the spirit doing this to Castiel, and bring him to my sisters."

Sam thanked Gratiae, and before she left Castiel had awoken and even managed to stand up, and for a split second looked almost like his normal, pain free self. The relief in his eyes brought a smile to each of the brothers faces. Castiel even managed a modest smirk himself before doubling over in pain once more, gripping his stomach and grabbing onto the edge of a table for support. He craned his neck round and through a pained expression, saw the spirit of favours moving towards him. Gratiae put one arm behind his back for support and rested the other on his forehead. After a few seconds Castiel's eyes fell closed again and Gratiae lay him on the ground. Dean and Sam stumbled forward a few steps, wary of what the spirit had just done. But as she stood up and moved away it was clear that Castiel was merely sleeping, or unconscious.

"That is the only way to help him right now. I cannot remove the pain, nor can I will it to numb or subside." Gratiae stated quietly and regretfully. "I shall begin to look for the remainder of the Algea."

The kindest spirit the brothers had met so far vanished just like Ania did in a flash, and they were left gobsmacked. They stood in silence for a couple of minutes at how easy it was to work with this spirit, before Sam finally managed to put together a sentence.

"So… uh while she's doing that, we should probably go look for Ania. See what information we can get from her."

"You think Cas will be okay on his own?"

"I think he's out-cold Dean. You saw what Gratiae did to him as much as I did."

Dean looked over at the once again peaceful-looking angel, then back to his brother.

"Alright. Let's go."

Sam and Dean took off, after moving Cas onto the couch instead of leaving him on the floor, and drove back to Ania's house. Upon arriving, Sam tripped on the way upstairs to the house, thwacking his shin in the process. Once they were in the house, Dean also slipped on a rug in the house and banged his head rather roughly on the door frame.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean grumbled, rubbing the side of his head, a prominent lump already growing. From the living room, the boys heard a low chuckle, and upon (carefully) barging into the room they saw Ania sitting in the middle of the room, watching them walk toward her very slowly. Before they reached her, she stood up confidently.

"You underestimate me gentlemen. I mean it's not like I can't do anything." Ania sneered before disappearing and re-appearing behind them. "And for a couple of little soldiers you sure don't know much about the basic code."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean snapped, confused.

"I mean" Ania stated patronisingly "A good soldier never leaves a man behind. Wounded or not."

And once again, Ania vanished with an evil grin, and Sam and Dean were left pondering what she meant for a few seconds before Sam jumped into action.

"Crap!"

"What?"

"Cas!" Sam yelled, as if it were obvious, before they both sprinted to the car and sped away. Tensions were running high and Dean called Sam out on his actions.

"Man, I told you we shouldn't have left him!" Dean yelled, breaking the speed limit.

"Look, Ania might not even be able to do anything. Cas was unconscious, maybe it's some Greek mythology mojo or something."

"Come on Sam, you really believe that?" his brother snapped again. "Even if we do sort this out, god knows how many more myths are gonna come after the angels. After him."

"Look, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Let's just get to Cas first." Sam concluded, ending the argument and beginning a long line of 'what if's in his and his brother's head.

xXx

"Castiel?" Ania sung as she walked over to the silent angel laying on the couch. She watched the him sleep, and bitterly cursed him under her breath as she stood over him, sneering. Swiftly, Ania swung her arm round and slapped Castiel with such a force, she became infuriated when he didn't immediately awaken. Once again she slapped him in the face, leaving a red mark covering his entire left cheek. And once again Castiel didn't budge.

"Fine. We'll see how powerful the spirit of favours is at close range, shall we?" Ania hissed. "How about an Algea sibling reunion?"

Not two seconds had passed before the trio were in the same room, and Castiel awoke with a painful start at the lack of air he felt in his lungs. The sight of Ania's evil grin forced the angel to believe that the worst possible events were about to commence. He searched the room frantically for Sam and Dean, and when it was clear they were gone, Castiel's fear turned to rage. Only to be further enraged by Ania's chuckle.

"Sorry, two thirds of your threesome is out looking for trouble." Ania stated, grabbing a handful of Castiel's hair and tugging him into a sitting position, before once again striking him. As she pulled him by the hair back into a sitting position, she raised her hand to punch him again, only to be met by his angel blade. He had used almost all of his energy in pressing the knife as deep into Ania's chest as he could, but his panic levels rose as he realised Ania's grip on his hair hadn't loosened. The glaring spirit looked down to the knife sticking out of her chest then back up to Castiel, before removing the knife and launching it into the wall at the other side of the room.

"Now you've pissed my brothers off." Ania stated, without any smirk. She wasn't smiling at all anymore. Now she was just enraged. Castiel warily looked over to Ania's brothers: both around his height, and very strong looking. One with short black hair and brown eyes, arms crossed, smiling the same evil smile that Ania had once done. The other spirit, who looked older than both Ania and the black haired one, had messy blonde hair and green eyes. He wore the same facial expression as Ania; unsmiling and angry looking. The black haired one cracked his knuckles and chuckled.

"So this is our play toy?" the young man questioned in a smooth, charming voice. "This should be fun."

And at his word, Castiel's chest tightened round him like he was being strangled by his own ribcage. He tried to cry out in pain, or for help, but he managed neither. Ania's other hand was wrapped round his throat, and the angel grabbed and clawed at it with every ounce of strength he had, but she wouldn't budge.

"You're losing touch Achus. What use is torture if you can't hear the impact?"

Ania released her grip on the angel's throat and hair, and Achus sauntered over to the couch where Ania had Castiel pinned. He ran a hand over Castiel's forehead, causing the angel to gasp for breath and screw his eyes shut. He gripped his head, which was throbbing and blurring his vision, before toppling off the couch. Then the low burning in his stomach started again, which he quite possibly hated the most. It made him want to throw up, but he didn't eat so he couldn't be sick, and the pain quickly escalated until all he could do was lay in the foetal position, putting pressure on the burning area in an attempt to dull the pain.

"Oh, that looks painful. How bad is it? On a scale of agonising to excruciating?"

"Ghaah!"

Castiel screwed his eyes shut, gripping his stomach. His breathing was shallow, and he gritted his teeth and cried out in pain. His stomach burned, and his head thumped. The angel pressed his forehead to the floor, weak, dizzy from the pain.

"I can make things so much worse Castiel. You could have left us alone! But now we're myths... and you can't kill a myth. "

"Ania…"-

The young goddess walked towards the angel who lay on the floor, knelt down beside him and pressed her forehead to his. Castiel was burning up and sweating, and so the feel of Ania's cold forehead on his soothed the pain enough for him to open his eyes.

"Are you going to beg?"

"…No."

"Then what?"

"I'm sorry."

Ania stood up. "You don't know what sorry feels like."

And as Castiel noticed the blonde haired one -Lupe- towering over him, the thoughts in his head reduced him to tears. The thoughts of everyone he had lost, or killed. The thought of ruining Sam and Dean's lives with everything he had ever done wrong, and almost getting them killed several times. Some of which at the hands of the angel they trusted. And at that moment Castiel was willing to die. He wished himself dead in fact. He would only hurt everyone further if he was still alive.

"Just kill me." The angel groaned in between his short breaths. His voice was weak, and tired sounding. Like he was too tired to be in pain any more. "Kill me."


	5. Gone With the Wind

"Kill me." the angel said pathetically, too tired to fight anymore. Now he knew what dying felt like, and he wasn't enjoying it. Ania pulled him up by the shirt until he stood as tall as he could for being hunched over in burning pain, and she said nothing as she stared into his warm blue eyes with her icy blue ones. The only sounds in the room were that of Castiel's erratic breathing and occasional groans of pain.

Then there was a soft breeze, and all hell broke loose as Ania was thrown to the other side of the room, away from Castiel, by one of the Kharites that wasn't Gratiae. She looked like Ania, but with short hair. Castiel gasped for breath as the restricted hold Ania and her brothers had on him was loosened for the time being; his arm stretched out for something to lean on to keep him standing. The goddess that had just saved him had eyes as icy blue as Ania, and for a moment Castiel wondered if she was indeed a saviour at all. The thought was cut short by an overwhelming sensation of grief; that she would never be able to save him and Sam and Dean would return to find him dead. He never even got to say goodbye…

Lupe was standing over him, face stone cold, nothing but hatred and pain in his stare. Castiel reached for his angel blade, and had managed to tighten his grip on the handle as more pain came in a massive wave. His bones ached, and made him feel like he weighed a ton. The angel collapsed and couldn't move at all, but he heard Achus laughing out of his line of vision. It was a haunting laugh, as if someone had told him a rather satisfying joke, and all of a sudden Castiel's head felt like it was shrinking and his brain being crushed by his skull. He couldn't move to grip his head because he was still being weighed down by his bones, and the only actual pain that was being caused by him was the ache of his throat from his cries of pain. His vision was turning blurry and fading. The angel couldn't hold out.

Until gunshots were heard and the spirits were thrown off their prime focus as Sam and Dean stormed the house once more, Gratiae and her other sister shortly following.

It was quite a sight for the brothers to run in on. Ania was in mid-battle with another spirit whom they had never seen before. The two looked strangely similar, Sam assumed because they were each other's opposite numbers, and Ania no longer looked smug, which was extremely satisfying for Dean. Gratia, the spirit of beauties swiftly moved like a gust of wind from one side of the room to the other, taking Achus down with her before either Sam or Dean had time to approach Castiel, who immediately gasped for air and rolled over onto his back as quickly as possible in a frantic attempt to get away from the Algea. He turned his head slowly towards the brothers and met their eyes.

"I'm sorry." The angel near enough whispered, gripping his angel blade and pulling it closer to himself.

"Cas, what are you doing?" Sam questioned worryingly, unaware that Lupe still had a hold of Castiel's mind. He looked to Gratiae for help, for a _favour_, and saw her sit down beside Castiel, and turned his head towards her. Her hand closed around his, stopping the angel blade from doing any damage. The angel's arm would not budge, and he couldn't seem to turn his head away from Gratiae's gaze. She smiled gently.

"You did not ask for this. You do not deserve it. You have nothing to be sorry for."

Sam and Dean watched, hypnotized by her words. And for a moment felt at peace with each other; with the world. Tears welled up in his eyes and the angel blade fell from Castiel's hand. Before it had hit the floor, Gratiae had shifted with a gust of wind to where Lupe was standing, swiftly taking him down. No sooner had they realised that the battle was effectively over, that all three hellraising spirits of pain, grief and trouble had vanished, leaving Gratiae and her sisters standing before Sam and Dean. The spirit who had battled Ania helped Castiel to his feet.

"Thank you." Castiel stated. It was a relief not to hear him speaking through gritted teeth. It was in fact a relief to hear him speaking in anything other than grunts of pain. Gratiae smiled and gave them a small nod.

Without all of the commotion, it became clear that the Kharites and the Algea looked surprisingly similar. Ania and her counterpart Charis, the spirit of graces, both had red hair and blue eyes; the spirit of pain –Achus- and the spirit of beauties –Gratia- had black hair and brown eyes; both very attractive. And Gratiae and her counterpart both had blonde hair and green eyes. They were all rather silent, but between them there was a clear understanding that there was no need for them to speak, but simply to do their good deeds and move along.

"_Greek mythology is insane." _Thought Dean. _"Thank god we're human"_.

"Is there anything we may do for you, before we return home?" Gratiae questioned, her sisters by her side with the same content, calm faces. Never had the brothers or Castiel come across anything so powerful yet so soft spoken and gentle. Similarly, the Kharites felt the same about the three men stood before them. Compared to other angels and humans they had seen or encountered, these three were rather selfless.

"Will any of the spirits come back?" Sam asked

"They have no business on earth." Gratiae replied "We promise this will never happen again." She couldn't promise something like that so confidently. It was never that simple. Dean of all people knew that, but for some reason still believed her.

"Yeah, thanks. Well I'm sure you've got a bunch of other spirits to deal with so we'll be on our way." He remarked, and he left the house without another word.

"We will return in a few weeks for you." Gratia spoke up. She spoke confidently, incredibly sure of herself, much like Achus did, Castiel noted mentally.

"Why?"

"Whether you knew it or not, the Algea affected all of you." She turned to Castiel. "You are not more powerful than a myth. They can have total control over you if they wish, and they have. Killing you would be too easy."

"But you said this would never happen again." Sam said, growing anxious. "You said"-

"I said this would never happen again, referring to any sort of battle between the myths occurring in your world. We will return however, because the spirits have a hold of you. Grief can make people do things they regret. You were even prepared to die, wishing to die." Gratiae spoke softly, and Castiel and Sam understood. They had grown too tired, Dean had left angrily and none of them felt ready to do anything just yet. Grief had a hold of them.

"So I will return in a few weeks." The spirit said with a sympathetic smile. Gratia bid the two farewell, and Charis smiled kindly at them and disappeared last.


End file.
